# Rooted in Worship

Sermon transcript from Cross Church El Mirage.
Series: Rooted and Ready
Date: August 9, 2026
Watch: https://crosschurchcares.com/el-mirage/episodes/rooted-in-worship

## Summary

Are you truly rooted in worship? What does it mean to let praise shape your everyday life? How can prayer transform your relationship with God? Join us as we explore the four P's of a vibrant faith that can change everything. Let's dive in together!

## Transcript

Welcome to Crossings. My name's Tyler 
 and I serve as campus pastor right here 
 at Crossings Church El Mirage. And I 
 want to welcome you to service today. 
 Before we get started, I want to make 
 you aware of a couple of ways that you 
 can connect with us today. The first, if 
 you have a phone with you, you can send 
 a text message with the word "Crossings 
 Church" no space to the number 94000. 
 Or if you'd like to use the cards that 
 are in the seat back in front of you, 
 we've got three cards that'll direct you 
 on ways that you can get connected this 
 week. The first is the new card. If 
 you're new to Crossings Church over the 
 last few weeks, we would love to connect 
 with you. Take some time to fill out 
 that card during our service today and 
 drop it in one of the black boxes and 
 then we'll follow up with you this week 
 with some more information. The next 
 card is the next card. Take some time to 
 use that card if you're interested in 
 taking some next steps in your faith 
 journey. Things like baptism, joining a 
 group, or even serving. And then lastly, 
 and I believe most importantly, is the 
 prayer card. And I want to guarantee you 
 that if you take time today to fill out 
 that prayer card, all of those come to 
 me and I get to pray over each of them 
 individually. So if you've got things 
 big or small going on in your life, 
 please feel free to share those with us. 
 We'd be happy to pray over them. As we 
 get prepared for some God-honoring 
 worship, I want to encourage you to go 
 into service today with an expectant 
 spirit. We know that God will do big 
 things in our midst. So I want to 
 encourage you to enter this time with an 
 expectant spirit. Now let's get prepared 
 for some God-honoring 
 >> Hey, good morning Crossings Church. 
 Let's stand to our feet. 
 Let's praise our God who is so faithful 
 to us. 
 >> Praise in the 
 valley. 
 Praise on the mountain. 
 I'll praise when [music] I'm sure. 
 Praise when I'm down. 
 Praise when I'm numbered. [singing] 
 Praise when surrounded. 
 Praise cuz there's water. 
 My enemies drown. 
 As long as I'm breathing, I've got a 
 reason to praise. 
 Praise 
 the Lord, 
 oh my soul. 
 Praise 
 the Lord, oh 
 oh my soul. 
 I'll praise when I'm 
 feeling it. 
 I'll 
 praise when [singing] I'm going. 
 Praise cuz [singing and music] I know 
 you're still in control. 
 Praise is a weapon. 
 It's more 
 than sound. 
 My praise is the shout 
 that brings Jericho down. 
 As long [music] as I'm breathing, I've 
 got a reason [singing] 
 to praise. 
 Praise 
 the Lord, oh my 
 I'm 
 going to praise. 
 Praise 
 the Lord, oh my 
 Oh, I won't 
 be silent. My God is [music] alive. 
 How could I keep it 
 inside? 
 Praise 
 the Lord, 
 oh my soul. 
 >> Praise the Lord. 
 Praise cuz you're sovereign. 
 Praise cuz you reign. 
 Praise cuz you rose and defeated the 
 grave. 
 Praise cuz you're faithful. 
 Praise cuz you're true. 
 Praise cuz there's nobody 
 [music and singing] greater than you. 
 Praise cuz you're sovereign. 
 Praise cuz you reign. 
 Praise cuz you [music and singing] rose 
 and defeated the grave. 
 Praise cuz you're faithful. 
 Praise cuz you're true. 
 Praise cuz there's nobody [music] 
 greater than you. 
 Praise 
 the Lord, 
 oh my soul. 
 Oh, I'm going to praise the 
 Lord, 
 oh my soul. [music] 
 Praise 
 the Lord, 
 oh my soul. 
 I'm going to praise the 
 Lord, 
 oh my soul. 
 I won't be quiet. My God is alive. 
 How could I keep it inside? I won't be 
 quiet. 
 I won't be quiet. 
 My God is alive. 
 >> [music] 
 >> How could I keep it inside? 
 Oh, I won't be quiet. 
 I won't be quiet. 
 My God 
 is alive. 
 >> [music] 
 >> How could I keep it inside? 
 Praise 
 the Lord, 
 oh my soul. 
 >> [music] 
 >> Praise the Lord. 
 I won't be quiet. 
 >> All right. Yeah, let's praise the Lord. 
 We know that Jesus alone, [singing] he 
 is our great king of glory. 
 There's no one else [music] 
 like him. There's no one that can 
 compare 
 to him. So, let's sing this, Who is the 
 great king of glory? 
 >> Who [singing] is the great king of 
 glory? 
 Seated on high in the heavens. 
 [singing] Oh. 
 Jesus, [music] 
 you alone. 
 You are [singing] the Lord God almighty. 
 Strong [music] in compassion [singing] 
 and mercy. 
 Oh. 
 Jesus, you [singing] 
 alone. 
 I've searched [music] the world 
 for a love that could fill my heart. 
 But nothing compares 
 to the wonder [music and singing] of 
 who 
 you are. 
 Holy. 
 All the earth singing [singing] holy. 
 All the angels cry [singing] holy. 
 Jesus, you alone. 
 Jesus, [singing] you 
 >> [music] 
 >> alone. 
 Who do you are? 
 You set the stars in the 
 heavens. 
 You set the 
 world into 
 >> [music] 
 >> motion. 
 >> [singing] 
 >> Jesus, you alone. 
 You breathed life in creation. 
 You walked among your created. 
 >> [singing] 
 >> Jesus, you alone. 
 Awesome. 
 I've searched the world 
 for a love that could fill my 
 heart. Oh, but 
 nothing compares [music] 
 to the wonder of you. 
 >> [music] 
 >> Holy. 
 All the earth 
 cries, "Holy." 
 All the angels [music] 
 cry, "Holy." 
 Jesus, you are 
 worthy. 
 Worthy. 
 All creation 
 sings, "Worthy." 
 All the 
 heavens exalt 
 Jesus, you are 
 worthy. 
 Jesus, you are 
 worthy. 
 You shed your blood [music and singing] 
 for salvation. 
 You broke the curse for our freedom. 
 [singing] 
 Jesus, [music] 
 you 
 alone. 
 We thank you, Jesus. 
 You rose worthy. 
 up with the 
 morning light. You'll come again 
 >> [singing and music] 
 >> in your glory. 
 Jesus, 
 you are Lord. 
 >> [music] 
 [music] 
 >> Jesus, you are Lord. 
 >> [music] 
 >> All the 
 >> [music] 
 >> earth cries 
 All the 
 angels cry 
 >> [music] 
 >> Jesus, you are Lord. 
 Oh, you're worthy. 
 All creation 
 sings worthy. 
 All the 
 >> [music] 
 >> heavens sing 
 Jesus, you are 
 worthy. 
 >> [music] 
 >> All the 
 earth cries 
 All the 
 angels cry 
 Jesus, you are 
 Yes, you are worthy. 
 All creation 
 >> [music] 
 >> sings 
 All the 
 >> [music] 
 >> heavens sing 
 Jesus, you are [music] worthy. 
 >> [music] 
 >> I can't 
 help but sing worthy. 
 >> [singing] 
 >> How my heart cries out worthy. 
 Jesus, you are 
 Lord. 
 And worthy, 
 >> [singing] 
 >> I lift my voice and sing, 
 worthy, 
 I bow my [singing] life to exalt 
 thee. 
 Jesus, you alone. 
 Jesus, you alone. 
 >> Amen. You can go ahead and grab a seat. 
 Um, as you do so, we're going to enter 
 into a time of prayer. 
 And so, I'm going to read for you, uh, 
 out of Psalm 119, a few different 
 verses, and we'll focus on three 
 specific prayer prompts today. And 
 here's really the, um, the context for 
 our time together in prayer today. 
 >> [music] 
 >> So, we're going to pray through a few 
 different sections, and I want to read 
 this first section, verses 1 and 2. Uh, 
 simple verses, but really helpful. Psalm 
 119, beginning at verse 1, says this, 
 "How happy are those whose way is 
 blameless, who walk according to the 
 Lord's instruction. Happy are those who 
 keep his decrees and seek him with all 
 their heart." As we walk through this 
 concept of prayer, uh, we're going to 
 spend some time praying in a few 
 different ways. This first prayer 
 prompt, as we think about this concept 
 that those who walk according to the 
 Lord's instruction are happy and are 
 fulfilled, [snorts] 
 I just want to ask you to start by 
 praying for someone else. 
 Maybe it's someone that you're near, 
 maybe it's a friend, a family member, a 
 spouse, a coworker. I just want to 
 encourage you to first, in this first 
 little section, let's pray 
 and ask God to move powerfully in 
 someone else's life in our circle, and 
 that they would walk according to God's 
 instruction. So, let's start by praying 
 for someone else in this first prayer 
 prompt. 
 >> Second thing I want to draw your 
 attention to as we continue in the 
 spirit of prayer verse 105 of the same 
 Psalm says this, 
 "Your word is a lamp for my feet and a 
 light on my path." 
 One of the beauties of scripture is the 
 simplicity and the clarity that we get 
 from a verse like this. 
 That God's word, the Bible, which we 
 have here in front of us, 
 is a light 
 for our path. It helps us to know which 
 direction to go, what steps to take, and 
 clarifies what we should be doing. And 
 so, in this second prayer prompt, what 
 I'm going to encourage you to pray for 
 is to pray for yourself. 
 That you would be a person whose path is 
 lit by God's word. That the Bible itself 
 begins to direct you. As a matter of 
 fact, what we find in verse 130 is this, 
 that the revelation of your word, that 
 is God, his word, brings light and gives 
 understanding to the inexperienced. So, 
 let's begin to pray for ourselves in 
 this second section, that we would be a 
 people who trust God's word to lead our 
 lives. 
 >> Last thing I want to draw your attention 
 to in this time of prayer is found in 
 verse 89. It says this, 
 "Lord, your word is forever. It is 
 firmly fixed in heaven." Which echoes a 
 similar concept we see in James chapter 
 1, uh that there is no shadow or 
 variation due to change in God's 
 character and nature. God is the same 
 yesterday, today, tomorrow, and forever. 
 And in that we can take confidence and 
 trust in the fact that the God of the 
 heavens is who he says he is. And so, 
 what we're going to do here is I'm going 
 to pray over us a prayer of thanksgiving 
 that God is exactly who the Bible says 
 he is and isn't changing. So, let me 
 pray for us as we prepare to continue in 
 worship. God, we come before you. 
 And God, we are so thankful 
 for the truth of the words that we just 
 read. 
 That while seemingly everything in our 
 lives is changing, 
 one thing remains true and that is you 
 and your word. And God, we pray that 
 that truth would infiltrate the other 
 areas of our lives, that it would give 
 us a hope and a foundation, a solid 
 confidence to live from. God, we pray 
 all this in your name. Amen. Let's stand 
 as we continue in worship. 
 >> Maybe we've made this complicated. 
 More than it was [singing and music] 
 ever meant to be. 
 Hasn't it always been about the same 
 thing? 
 Lord, [singing] 
 bring us back to simple things. 
 You 
 be the center of it all. 
 My heart [singing] 
 belongs to you. 
 My savior, 
 all in 
 You're the one [singing] 
 I hold on to. 
 For the beauty of 
 your name, 
 my soul 
 leaps to sing. 
 Jesus, I love 
 Teach us to discern the moment 
 when to sing 
 and when to 
 sit here at 
 your feet. 
 Keep us awake 
 to what's important. 
 Just like Mary, 
 chose [singing] the better thing. 
 You You, 
 are the center [singing] 
 of 
 it all. 
 My 
 heart belongs to you, 
 >> [music] 
 >> my savior 
 all 
 >> [singing] 
 >> in all. 
 You're the one I [music] hold on to, 
 for the beauty [singing] 
 of your name, 
 my soul 
 lives to sing. 
 Jesus, I love you. 
 >> [singing] 
 [music] 
 >> Oh, 
 for you. 
 Our center 
 of [music] it all. 
 My [singing] heart belongs to you, 
 my savior all in all. 
 You're the one [singing and music] I 
 hold on to, 
 for the beauty 
 of your name, 
 my soul 
 >> [singing] 
 >> will live 
 to sing. 
 >> [music] 
 >> Jesus, I love you. 
 >> [singing] 
 >> Oh, how I love 
 >> [music] 
 >> Oh, how I love 
 you. 
 Jesus, I love 
 you. 
 Oh, how I love 
 Oh, how I love 
 you. 
 Jesus, [music] 
 I love 
 you. 
 And my 
 whole life 
 for your glory, my whole world 
 >> [singing] 
 >> for 
 you only, 
 everything 
 for the honor 
 >> [singing] 
 >> of your 
 And if my [singing] days 
 tell the story, let it be 
 of you 
 >> [singing] 
 >> only, everything 
 for the honor 
 of your 
 name. Sing it again. 
 And my whole 
 life 
 for your glory, 
 >> [singing] 
 >> my whole world, 
 for you only, 
 everything, 
 for the 
 >> [singing] 
 >> honor of your name. 
 >> [music] 
 >> And if my days 
 tell a story, 
 let it 
 be of you only, 
 everything, 
 for the honor of your name. 
 And 
 my whole 
 >> [singing] 
 >> life, 
 for your glory, 
 my whole world, 
 >> [music] 
 >> for you only, 
 everything, 
 for the honor of your name. 
 And if my days 
 >> [music] 
 >> tell a story, 
 let it 
 be 
 of you only, 
 >> [singing] 
 >> everything, 
 for the honor of your name. 
 Oh, how 
 I love 
 you. 
 Oh, how I love 
 you. 
 Jesus, I love 
 you. 
 Oh, how I love 
 you. 
 >> [music] 
 >> Oh, how I love 
 you. 
 And I have 
 >> [music] 
 >> my whole life, 
 and my 
 >> [singing] 
 >> whole life, 
 for your glory, 
 my whole 
 world, for you only, 
 everything, 
 >> [music] 
 >> for the honor 
 of your 
 name. 
 And if 
 my days 
 tell a story, 
 >> [music] 
 >> let it 
 be of you only, 
 everything, 
 for the honor of your 
 name. 
 And my 
 >> [music] 
 >> whole 
 life, your glory, 
 >> [music] 
 [music] 
 [singing and music] 
 [singing] 
 [singing and music] 
 [singing] 
 [singing] 
 [singing] 
 [music and singing] 
 >> Amen. You go to grab a seat. As you do 
 so, I'm going to let you know about a 
 few events coming up that you'll want to 
 know about. But, before we get to that, 
 I want to give you a heads-up about the 
 cards that are in either the seat back 
 in front of you or the seat back behind 
 you. Um these cards are really 
 important. There's three of them. 
 They're pretty self-explanatory. I'll 
 explain them anyways. Um the first card 
 is the new card. So, if you're 
 relatively new to CrossChurch looking to 
 connect, that new card is super helpful. 
 It's how you and I can get connected. We 
 can share more information about the 
 church, but also hear more of your 
 story. So, that's the new card. The 
 second card is the next card. One of the 
 things that's consistent in who we are 
 as CrossChurch is we believe that as we 
 gather and spend time in prayer and 
 studying God's word that oftentimes he 
 will call us into a next [music] step, 
 whether it's something like baptism, 
 maybe it's saying yes to Jesus for the 
 very first time, or serving in a 
 ministry or something of that nature. 
 This card is how you can communicate 
 those things to us. 
 And then last but not least is the 
 prayer card. That prayer card's 
 important because we pray here often as 
 a church understanding that that is the 
 way that we communicate with the God of 
 the heavens. And so, if you've got 
 something going on, big or small, and 
 want to share that with us, we would be 
 honored to pray over that. Any of those 
 cards you can take and drop in one of 
 the boxes as you exit our services a 
 little bit later. Well, hey, we've got a 
 couple of options for you in terms of 
 events coming up that I want you to know 
 about. The first is our last call for 
 Faith and Family Night at the 
 Diamondbacks. Um pretty stoked on this 
 one. We got a group of about 50 signed 
 up so far. So, this is going to be a 
 blast. We're going. The Diamondbacks are 
 winning right now, which is always a 
 good thing. That makes that more fun. 
 The concert's going to be a blast, and I 
 will promise you, um as I did for my 
 son, that 
 Dippin' Dots will be available. So, if 
 that's your thing, just know Dippin' 
 Dots will be at the stadium. If that's a 
 deal-breaker or not for you, uh that is 
 available there at the stadium. So, make 
 sure if you're interested in Faith and 
 Family Night to get registered tonight 
 by midnight just to make sure that we 
 get our final ticket numbers locked 
 [music] in. Again, you can do that at 
 crosschurchcares.com/events. 
 And if you are registered, we'll see you 
 on Friday night at the game. Second 
 event coming up is called pizza with the 
 pastor, and it's super super important. 
 If you're maybe new to Cross Church, 
 looking for ways to take a next step or 
 get connected, pizza with the pastor is 
 the answer. 
 >> [music] 
 >> And here's why. In that, we'll have an 
 opportunity to share with you the 
 mission and vision of who we are as 
 Cross Church, ways that 
 >> [music] 
 >> we might be able to get connected, but 
 also ways that you can begin to grow in 
 your relationship with Christ, 
 ministries you might be able to be 
 involved in or benefit from. And so, 
 that's a great event. That one also you 
 can register for at 
 crosschurchcares.com/events. 
 That's next Sunday at 11:45 a.m. 
 directly following this service. But do 
 us a favor, please register so we know 
 how much pizza to have. That's very 
 important there as well. So, make sure 
 to register for pizza with the pastor 
 there. And then lastly, we'll create an 
 opportunity here for about 30 seconds. 
 You'll see it here on the screen. 
 >> [music] 
 >> Uh 
 to give you a chance to give. Here's one 
 of the things that's true. We know that 
 God has given to us, and as God has 
 blessed us, we get an opportunity to 
 give back to him out of what he has 
 blessed us with. And so, you'll see some 
 options on the screen here, a QR code, 
 give you a chance to do that for about 
 30 seconds as we prepare to step into 
 studying God's word. So, let's consider 
 giving. 
 >> Well, here's the deal. Welcome to Cross 
 Church, whether you're here in the room 
 or if you're watching online. We're so 
 glad that you made the choice to join us 
 today. We're going to be today in the 
 book of Colossians chapter 3. So, if you 
 got a Bible, go ahead and open that up. 
 Flip there, click there, and make your 
 way there to Colossians 
 chapter 3. We are in week two of the 
 series that we're calling rooted and 
 ready. That's why we're talking about 
 trees that seem random, but actually 
 have a deeper purpose for us today. Uh 
 and here's the concept for today. Um we 
 are doing something for the very first 
 time. At least I am doing something for 
 the very first time. 
 >> [snorts] 
 >> Never in my entire life have I turned my 
 sermon outline into a T-shirt. So, if 
 you missed the fill-in-the-blanks today, 
 they're on my T-shirt. We're literally 
 going through the four P's. So, there's 
 a spoiler. Some of you are like, 
 "Perfect. I'm going to fill in all my 
 notes and close them up now." All right, 
 don't do that because God's watching. 
 All right, seriously. 
 So, keep your notes open. You never 
 know. 
 But, we are today talking about the four 
 P's. And here's kind of the idea for 
 this. These have been something that 
 have been kind of a part of our DNA as a 
 church for some time now, but we're 
 really going to lock these in and 
 leverage these four P's weekly. One of 
 the questions I often get, which you may 
 have wondered, is, "Hey Pastor, what do 
 you do for the rest of the week? Your 
 job is to be a pastor and that's on 
 Sundays, but what do you do the rest of 
 the week? Well, the answer is things 
 happen on Monday through Saturday that 
 make Sundays happen and also people run 
 into things during the week, so I get to 
 do those things during the week as well. 
 One of the things I do during the week 
 is something called service planning. 
 So, that's writing a sermon and actually 
 working together to make sure that I 
 don't know if you guys know this, but 
 all of the songs and the prayer times 
 and all match. That doesn't happen by 
 circumstance, okay? We actually have to 
 strategically plan to make sure all of 
 that stuff works together. And so, this 
 is kind of how we get to that point. 
 And so, here's kind of the key question. 
 I don't know if you've ever wondered 
 this, 
 but the key question that we're going to 
 answer today is who are we as Crossway 
 Church? 
 Maybe you're joining us for the first 
 time or the thousandth time and you know 
 who we are. If you're joining us for the 
 first time, you're going to hear us say 
 things like making Jesus known and 
 that's really important to us. You're 
 going to hear us talk about our values, 
 which are being biblical, relevant, 
 missional. And those are going to be 
 things that really guide us. And you're 
 going to hear us talk about things like 
 church planting and how we want to be a 
 church that keeps the light on for other 
 churches. Well, I'm going to add to that 
 list today that today's sermon, the four 
 P's, are going to be the sort of other 
 thing that we are known for as Crossway 
 Church. Before we jump into our text in 
 Colossians chapter 3, though, I do have 
 a question. 
 All right? 
 Just raise your hand if you've ever made 
 a decision and live to regret it for 
 like ever. Like a long, long time. You 
 never live it down. All right, good. 
 We're in good company, so I can be 
 honest with you, all right? Not that I 
 was going to lie to you, but now I can 
 definitely be honest, all right? Here's 
 the thing. 
 Two years ago, I made a decision that 
 I'm reaping the negative consequences of 
 right now. 
 Two years ago, at our home, I had this 
 issue where weeds magically 
 appeared in my yard. And the HOA was 
 kind enough to write me a letter about 
 it. It was super nice of them. They 
 wrote me a letter. And so I had to do 
 something about the weeds. But something 
 you need to know about me is I'm a 
 little bit little vindictive, little 
 passive-aggressive. All right, I don't 
 like to let things slide, all right? So 
 I had to do something about it. I was 
 like, I'm going to let the HOA know I 
 did something, all right? Not only I 
 clean up the weeds, yes, but I'm going 
 to spray for the weeds. 
 And I'm going to take it up one extra 
 notch. So I ordered for just a couple of 
 dollars a nice little product that you 
 can buy on Amazon. Comes in a bottle 
 about this big. It's called landscaping 
 dye. 
 Someone said, "Oh, no." And oh, no is 
 right. Here's what happened when I 
 ordered this landscaping dye. Came in 
 this little bottle. And the instructions 
 say to be very, very careful. That a 
 little bit goes a long ways. 
 Well, that has been very true for the 
 last 2 years of my life. Because here's 
 what happened. I did my little project 
 and I made a little spill. So on the 
 side of my house in the rocks right 
 there, you can see blue dye. I had blue 
 rocks. What I thought was only going to 
 last for a couple of days has lasted for 
 a very significant period of time. 
 However, somewhat miraculously, 
 over the last 2 years randomly 
 blue spots would show up in my garage 
 and around my tools. And it got to a 
 point as we moved a couple of weeks ago 
 where it took over my entire home. As I 
 was going in and out of the garage and 
 grabbing tools, blue dye appeared 
 everywhere. I kid you not, to this day I 
 grabbed a tool out of the garage on my 
 way here, I have blue dye on my hands. 
 It's never leaving me. It's infiltrated 
 everywhere. I've had to mop and I've had 
 to clean and I and it's still there. As 
 a matter of fact, I was so kind to my 
 friends that helped me move that they 
 helped me move, and they came home with 
 blue dye on their hands, as well. It was 
 a great gift. Uh but here's the deal. 
 Um my wife, who's very logical, says, 
 "Oh, well, where did you spill it? You 
 can just go and clean it up, and it's 
 over." 
 No, no, no. It's everywhere. All right? 
 It's everywhere, and it haunts me 
 forever. Well, here's the reason I tell 
 you this story. As we talk about these 
 four P's, here's my heart today. 
 Is I want to see you and I 
 have lives that have been completely 
 infiltrated with these four P's. That 
 this rhythm or process impacts you and I 
 in a way that we will never forget, and 
 that sticks with us consistently. And 
 so, let's read out of Colossians chapter 
 3, beginning in verse 16. It says this: 
 "Let the word of Christ dwell richly 
 among you. 
 In all wisdom, teaching and admonishing 
 one another through psalms, hymns, and 
 spiritual songs. 
 Singing to God with gratitude in your 
 hearts. And whatever you do, in word or 
 indeed, do everything in the name of the 
 Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the 
 Father through him." Let's pray as we 
 jump in. God, we come before you asking 
 two things, as we do every week. 
 Firstly, you give us the wisdom to 
 understand these words, that these words 
 would come alive to us today. And that 
 secondly, God, you would give us the 
 conviction to live out what we've 
 learned today, 
 beginning tomorrow. We pray all this in 
 your name. Amen. 
 Well, as we do this, I'm going to walk 
 you through these four P's, because we 
 are a church built around the four P's. 
 And the first P is 
 Pray. Good. Somebody paid attention. 
 Awesome. That's so good. Um the first P 
 is pray. Now, I want to tell you a 
 little bit about who we are, and why we 
 do prayer the way that we do. 
 Scripture here says, in Colossians 
 chapter 3, 
 that we should be admonishing one 
 another through psalms, hymns, and 
 spiritual songs. Singing to God with 
 gratitude. And that whatever we do in 
 word or deed, that we should do 
 everything for the glory of God. And 
 prayer is the foundational piece of that 
 for us. And our prayer here is a little 
 bit unique as to other places you may 
 pray and other churches that may pray. 
 For us, there's a two-headed monster, if 
 you will, of prayer. The first piece 
 that's valuable is having spirit-led 
 prayer. That is to say this, we allow 
 the Holy Spirit to work in our lives as 
 we pray. Means we give space for God to 
 speak to us, but also we allow the Holy 
 Spirit to lead us in prayer. The other 
 side of that conversation is having both 
 spirit-led and scripture-fed 
 prayer. 
 What I love about this is that we 
 admonish one another through psalms, 
 hymns, and spiritual songs, that we 
 actually use the word of God to teach us 
 and to help us relate to others, that 
 the Bible infiltrates even the way that 
 we pray. If I was going to give you a 
 helpful model for it, it would be what 
 we just did in Psalm 119. Three specific 
 ways that you can begin to pray today 
 and tomorrow to begin to live out 
 prayer. One way that you can do this 
 is to use arrows, okay? So, maybe in the 
 side margins of your notes you can write 
 an arrow first going up. So, if you draw 
 an arrow going up, the first piece of 
 prayer is about praying up. That is that 
 when we pray, we start by thanking God 
 for who he is. We did it last when we 
 looked at Psalm 119, but what we do is 
 we praise God through prayer. We start 
 with that. And if you wonder what to 
 thank God for, 
 you can begin to thank him for what he's 
 done and how he's moved in your life. 
 If you look for more evidence, 
 all throughout scripture you can find 
 ways to praise God. The names, 
 characters, and characteristics, and 
 attributes of God listed all throughout 
 scripture, we can actually pray those 
 back to him. Uh and so use scripture to 
 feed your prayer. So first we pray up 
 and praise God. Second, we can pray a 
 down arrow and that is to begin to pray 
 for ourselves. 
 We can actually pray for ourselves. 
 We can pray that God would convict us of 
 areas where we're falling short 
 according to his standard, allow him to 
 speak to us and to call us to a higher 
 standard. We can pray down. As a matter 
 of fact, when we read Psalm 119, we 
 understood that God's word is a lamp to 
 our feet. And so for us, we can pray 
 that God would allow his words be a lamp 
 to our feet specifically. So up, down, 
 and then the third arrow that we can 
 begin to pray is out. So we can begin to 
 pray for others. This is called 
 supplication. So we pray for others. You 
 might pray for friends or family 
 members, people going through sickness 
 or difficulty or struggle. We begin to 
 pray for others. You can pray for other 
 churches around the nation. You can 
 begin to pray that the kingdom of God 
 would advance. You can pray for leaders 
 in our city, state, country, and world 
 that God would use them for his glory. 
 So understand very clearly that prayer 
 is important. Prayer matters for us. 
 And what I believe is important is that 
 prayer should become routine for us. 
 Not mundane or boring, but that prayer 
 should become routine. We should have a 
 framework for that conversation. It 
 reminds me of a couple of stories. The 
 one being uh the lady who her mother was 
 cooking the Thanksgiving turkey and she 
 cut the end of the turkey off and put it 
 in the oven. 
 Well, at the time, the girl asked her 
 mom, "Why do we cut the end off the 
 turkey?" Well, she says, "You must ask 
 your grandma cuz that's how she taught 
 me to do it." 
 And she asked her grandma who says, 
 "Well, you'd have to ask your great 
 grandma because I don't I don't know why 
 we do that. She she taught me how to do 
 it that way." She asked the great great 
 grandmother and the great great says, 
 "Well, I chopped the end off of the 
 turkey because I didn't have a pan big 
 enough to fit in the oven with the whole 
 turkey." 
 And then it just became a random family 
 thing that they did. They all just cut 
 the end off of the turkey in order 
 because it was what they did. Well, as a 
 matter of fact, we see a bigger example 
 of a similar concept here. 
 NASA, if you believe in NASA, different 
 story. 
 No conspiracy theories here. 
 Uh NASA, when they have their rocket 
 boosters, they have a very specific 
 width on them. The specific width of, 
 historically speaking, all of NASA's 
 rocket boosters is 4 ft 8 and 1/2 in. 
 Now, you'd say, "Tyler, why on earth do 
 I need to know that fact?" Well, let me 
 tell you how we arrived at 4 ft 8 and 
 1/2 in. 
 Well, in order to get from where the 
 rocket boosters are built to where they 
 are 
 boosted from, 
 it's a very technical term, boosted 
 from, what you have to do is you have to 
 go through a series of tunnels. And so, 
 on these trains in these tunnels, they 
 have to go through a width that is 4 ft 
 8 and 1/2 in. And so, that began to be 
 the framework. Now, if you're like me, 
 you begin to go down this path that 
 causes you to ask, "Why?" Well, why is 
 the railroad 4 ft 8 and 1/2 in wide? 
 Like, why is that the opening we 
 decided? Well, as you continue, that 
 that rail width 
 was used because English tramways were 
 built at 4 ft and 8 and 1/2 in wide. 
 And then I'm thinking, "Okay, well, why 
 did English tramways get that? Did they 
 just randomly pick that number?" No, 
 they didn't. Those tramways were built 
 using the exact same wheel spacing as 
 old Roman war chariots. So, Roman war 
 chariots, some 2,000 years ago, were 
 built at 4 ft 8 and 1/2 in, which shaped 
 all of modern society. 
 And then if you just go one last layer 
 further, why were Roman chariots that 
 wide? 
 Well, here's your scientific answer. 
 Roman chariots were that size so they 
 could accommodate the rear width, the 
 butt, 
 of two horses. 
 So, if you step back and think about 
 this with me, 
 the rocket boosters that NASA uses are 4 
 ft 8 and 1/2 in 
 because two horses' butts put together 
 are 4 ft 8 and 1/2 in. 
 why does that matter to us? 
 The standards that we start with, shaped 
 by odd things, 
 stick with us. 
 For generations upon generations. Here's 
 my prayer for you and I today. 
 That when it comes to prayer, 
 no pun intended, that we would create 
 healthy rhythms that we can look back to 
 so that generations that come after us 
 know that we pray this way that is 
 spirit-led and scripture-fed and helps 
 us to grow in our faith. The second P I 
 want you to see as we continue in this 
 process 
 is praise. 
 It is valuable. After praying, we get to 
 praise. And I want to be clear about a 
 couple of things that praise, what we do 
 here together through spiritual songs as 
 Colossians chapter 3 would call it, is 
 not just 
 praise through worship songs. However, 
 that is the mode that we do it most 
 often in on a Sunday morning. So, I'll 
 speak to that today. It is the simplest 
 and clearest way where we see worship on 
 a Sunday. But it is about more than just 
 songs that we sing. It's truths that we 
 declare. And so, it's with that in mind 
 I want you to walk you through why we 
 structure our services the way that we 
 do with praise, the songs that we sing. 
 I believe there's a few benefits to it. 
 Number one, scripture commands it as we 
 see here, singing to 
 God 
 with gratitude in your hearts. One of 
 the key elements of what we do on a 
 Sunday morning is to thank God through 
 songs. Now, one of the benefits for 
 someone like me is that it doesn't say 
 it has to be on key singing to God with 
 gratitude, all right? I I don't know if 
 you guys are like me, sometimes I sing 
 too loud and I begin to hear my own 
 voice and realize, "Oh, I should turn 
 that down a little bit." right? But, 
 singing to God with gratitude is 
 valuable. Now, one of the things I think 
 you need to understand as we talk about 
 this is that it is valuable for us 
 because scripture commands it, but it is 
 also valuable for us because worship 
 sticks with us. Songs stick with us. And 
 we can laugh about the way that silly 
 songs like jingles for commercials stick 
 with us. And different ways that things 
 on the radio stick with us. But, what we 
 find is as we sing songs in church that 
 stick with us they help tune our hearts 
 to sing God's praise. 
 One of the things that I promise you is 
 true, it's happening on a Sunday morning 
 every single week. 
 Some of us identify with this more than 
 others is the reality that as we sing 
 words 
 sometimes it is us trying to teach our 
 heart to do things. 
 Sometimes we sing, "I love you, Lord, 
 and I trust you." 
 And sometimes it is us singing that song 
 trying to tune our heart to believe 
 that. We're trying to teach our heart to 
 believe that. And so, worship is yes 
 about declaring these truths, but it's 
 also about tuning our heart to what God 
 is commanding us to do. 
 Now, one of the things that naturally I 
 begin to process and think through is 
 what separates the singing we do here 
 from concerts at venues that happen all 
 around the valley. 
 Now, one of the most important 
 differences is that our talent on stage 
 doesn't arrive in cleaning parts. If you 
 know, you know. Any Swifties in the 
 room? 
 Like one of you. Okay, good. That 
 missed. That's okay. Um, here's the 
 focus though. 
 The focus of our worship isn't on the 
 people on stage. 
 As a matter of fact, I'll speak for 
 Emily 
 she doesn't mind if you don't remember 
 her name when you leave here on a 
 Sunday. 
 But, you know what name she wants you to 
 know? 
 It's the name of Jesus. That's it. 
 That's the focus. So, as we sing the 
 songs, what makes it different than a 
 concert? It's the focus and the aim. The 
 goal is to bring glory to God. As a 
 matter of fact, Colossians 3:16, singing 
 to God with gratitude. So, as we gather 
 together, we pray, but we also are a 
 people that prays. The third thing 
 you'll see about us is that we also 
 believe it's important to preach. 
 To preach. 
 And now, I'll tell you a little bit 
 about this. The way that we preach is 
 different than some. 
 Um there are some churches 
 who will pick different sections of the 
 Bible to preach every Sunday. It'll be a 
 verse here, a verse there, a verse 
 there, and that's what they'll pick. 
 There's some churches that have a 3-year 
 rhythm where they'll preach a certain 
 set of prescribed verses every single 
 week, and that's it. There's no thinking 
 to it. As a church, here's what's unique 
 about the way that we preach. 
 Our location pastors gather together, as 
 we'll do next week for 3 days, and we 
 will nail down our preaching calendar 
 for the next year. 
 And what we'll do is we will combine 
 where we've been, 
 what we need as a church as we speak to 
 some of the needs of our congregations, 
 and what we believe God is leading us 
 towards to lay out the foundation of 
 what we will preach through. So, for 
 example, we've already laid out that 
 this fall we're going to preach through 
 Job. So, if you're here and you're 
 experiencing suffering, 
 get ready. It's going to be good. It's 
 going to be good. I'm really excited for 
 this book of the Bible. But, what's 
 unique is then we pick these books of 
 the Bible and we preach through them in 
 their entirety. 
 Which means I don't get to skip the 
 parts that are uncomfortable. 
 I don't get to fast-forward to the 
 verses that have a little bit of tension 
 in them. 
 I have to listen to what God is trying 
 to teach us through each and every verse 
 and walk us through it as a church. We 
 preach through books of the Bible. We 
 don't just pick what feels good in the 
 moment. We don't skip the weird parts, 
 the tough parts, or even the boring 
 parts. We preach them all. 
 I went back this past week and did a 
 little bit of research starting in 2016 
 when we started keeping track of this 
 stuff really well. 
 Um all the way up through this year, 
 the list of books of the Bible that 
 we've preached through in their entirety 
 compared to those we haven't 
 is crazy. The list of books we haven't 
 preached through is pretty small and in 
 the next year it's going to get even 
 smaller by the grace of God. We are 
 attacking this with the goal of growing 
 our faith in terms of depth. The hope is 
 that as we continue to study God's word 
 and preach through every part of it and 
 then pair Bible groups with it that 
 study the content and flesh it out that 
 we grow as disciples in our 
 understanding of the word. Understand 
 that preaching is vital to what we do as 
 a church. The fourth P that you'll see 
 in this four P's is practice. 
 It's one that I believe is very, very 
 important. As a matter of fact, I'll 
 read for you the words of James chapter 
 1 here which says this beginning in 
 verse 22. 
 But be doers of the word and not hearers 
 only and so deceiving yourselves. 
 Because if anyone is a hearer of the 
 word and not a doer, he's like someone 
 who looks at his own face in a mirror. 
 For he looks at himself, goes away, and 
 immediately forgets what kind of person 
 he was. But the one who looks intently 
 into the perfect law of freedom and 
 perseveres in it is not a forgetful 
 hearer but a doer who works. This person 
 will be blessed in what he does. You see 
 the difference here? You can pray and 
 praise and sit under preaching, but 
 until you practice all of that other 
 stuff, you won't have accomplished what 
 God's intended purpose is. Practice. It 
 is about action. We hear God's word and 
 we do God's word. 
 By the grace of God, my hope is that 
 what we learn on Sunday shapes who you 
 and I are on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, 
 Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. 
 That we are a people who worships on 
 Sunday, but also worships throughout the 
 week. One of the ways that this has 
 fleshed itself out has been fun to see. 
 As a matter of fact, as a church we talk 
 often about evangelism. I had a couple 
 of stop me after the first service and 
 the wife said, "Hey, I feel like 
 evangelism is my gifting." You know 
 what's cool about that? I got to give 
 her the green light to go do some 
 evangelism and help her with some 
 resources and tools. And as a matter of 
 fact, as a church we went over the 
 summer series and taught people 
 evangelism. Uh I'll be honest with you, 
 evangelism could be pretty scary. So, we 
 taught people a few different methods 
 and I had somebody mention this past 
 week to me that they learned tools 
 during the evangelism class that served 
 them well in daily life. We talked about 
 this recently that honestly, the way 
 that the gospel gets fleshed out is 
 leveraging where we live, work, and play 
 for the glory of God. And so, one of the 
 guys mentioned, "Hey, I am really into 
 woodworking. I spend a lot of money at 
 this one store. I happen to be there 
 this week and I was showing the guy who 
 worked at the store what I was working 
 on and it was this little box with a 
 specific inscription about wearing the 
 full armor of God." And he said, "What 
 happened is, it brought up a 
 conversation about faith." Where the guy 
 who worked at the store shared, "Hey, 
 that I'm actually a Muslim and I'm 
 trying to figure out what it means to 
 follow Jesus. And where do these things 
 line up?" Now, 
 the guy wasn't converted in that initial 
 conversation, but what I can tell you is 
 this. 
 When we talk about evangelism and we 
 practice evangelism, that is doing the 
 practice portion. That's where what we 
 believe shapes what we do. One of the 
 cool things that happens is we talk here 
 as a church about helping others. 
 About caring for other people. And 
 here's what happened. I got a text 
 yesterday from a young mom who said, "I 
 have a bunch of extra resources that I'd 
 like to bless another young mom with 
 that doesn't have them." And so she 
 loaded up supplies to give to other 
 young moms in our church because she 
 cared about helping others. We talked 
 about it and she did it. We talk about 
 here planting churches and then we have 
 people that gathered in our midst that 
 left to go launch two new churches this 
 year by the grace of God. We talk about 
 let's go, about making sure that the 
 light stays on our churches all around 
 our city and state. 
 By the glory of God, you and I 
 partnering together, that is happening. 
 You see, at the end of the day, the 
 reality is this. 
 We must practice what we believe in. 
 Practice is where it goes from theory to 
 action. And scripture confirms this for 
 us. And so I want to begin 
 to do this with my remaining time. I 
 just want to spend time answering a key 
 practice. 
 How do the four P's 
 make their way into our daily lives? 
 It's simple. How do the four P's make 
 their way into our daily lives? I'm 
 going to give you four easy things that 
 you can do starting this week to turn 
 those four P's into repeatable actions 
 in your life. Number one, find time to 
 pray daily. 
 It doesn't have to be magical and it 
 doesn't have to be an hour long every 
 single time. It might, 
 but leverage where you're at. Maybe your 
 only moments of silence are after you 
 drop the kids or most of the kids off at 
 school and you're driving to work. And 
 that's your window for prayer. And for 
 the glory of God, I would say leverage 
 what you have. 
 For some of us, it means we wake up 5 to 
 10 minutes earlier 
 to spend time in prayer. Some of us stay 
 up just a smidge later to spend time in 
 prayer. But find a way to pray daily. 
 It's not magical, but those daily 
 repeatable actions begin to shape who we 
 are as people. The second thing I want 
 you to see is that you should create a 
 rhythm where you praise God daily. 
 One of the things that happens in our 
 house, and our kids will confirm this to 
 you, is that at dinner every single 
 night when we sit down to dinner, 
 everyone at the table answers two 
 questions: the best thing and the worst 
 thing that happened that day. 
 I love this idea. It's not even original 
 to me. I stole it from someone else. 
 But here's what happens. Every single 
 day, 
 as a family, we're talking about things 
 that we have, that happened, that went 
 well, that we can praise God for. 
 And so for us, it's a good thing and 
 it's a bad thing. And it begins to be an 
 opportunity for us to care for each 
 other, to support each other. So, think 
 through a daily consistent rhythm where 
 you can praise God daily. Third, I just 
 want to encourage you 
 to insert the Bible into your life. 
 Read your Bible. 
 Read your Bible. Here's the thing. We 
 live in a day and an age where the Bible 
 is more accessible to us than it's ever 
 been. If you like to read, awesome. You 
 can read the Bible. 
 If you don't like to read, you can 
 listen to the Bible. If you don't even 
 like to listen, you're actually able to 
 find places where you can watch the 
 Bible unfold in front of you. But I want 
 to encourage you to find simple, 
 repeatable ways to study the Bible 
 often. Here's what we find. It's not 
 magic, but when we get into God's word, 
 God's word gets into us. And when we 
 need scripture, it's there for us 
 because we've studied it, because it's 
 right there, and we remember it. 
 Fourth thing I want to encourage you 
 with, 
 make it happen. 
 If I could just lovingly tell you from 
 somebody who cares about you, 
 if you will pray daily, praise God 
 consistently, and study your Bible, 
 God will show up and show out in your 
 life. 
 Get rid of the excuses. Make it happen. 
 Create space for it, and then watch God 
 move powerfully in your life. Let me 
 pray for you as we begin to step into a 
 time of worship. God, we come before 
 you. 
 God, people gathered in this room and 
 those 
 that are watching online, and 
 God, as we gather together specifically 
 today, 
 my prayer is that you would help us as 
 Crossroads El Mirage, 
 a church right here on the corner of 
 Peoria and El Mirage, to be a people 
 that have prayer at the center of who 
 they are. God, I pray that for those of 
 us in the room and those watching 
 online, that we would create consistent 
 rhythms to pray. That we would get rid 
 of excuses and hurdles that hold us 
 back, and we would find times to pray. 
 Also God, that we would find times to 
 praise, to thank you for how you are 
 moving in our lives. That we would sing 
 songs to you with gratitude, 
 understanding that at the bare minimum, 
 you have saved us from eternity in hell. 
 And God, that is enough to earn our 
 gratitude. 
 God, we also specifically today pray 
 that you would help us to be a people 
 that spend time constantly in the word. 
 That scripture memory would be true for 
 us. That we would be familiar with 
 stories in the Bible, and that those 
 things would be there for us when we 
 need them. That they would become a part 
 of our daily lives. God, again, that 
 we would be a people who get rid of 
 excuses, that find ways to allow the 
 Bible to be inserted into our daily 
 lives. 
 God, we pray all this in your name. 
 Amen. 
 Let's stand as we continue in worship. 
 >> Here I'm an 
 instrument 
 of exaltation. [music and singing] 
 And I was born to lift your name above 
 all names. 
 You hear the melody 
 of all creation. [music] 
 But there's a song of praise that 
 [music] only [singing] 
 I can bring. 
 Who else is worthy? 
 Who else is worthy? 
 There is no one. 
 >> [singing] 
 >> Only you, Jesus. [music] 
 Who else is worthy? 
 Who else is worthy? 
 There is no one. 
 Only you, Jesus. 
 >> [singing] 
 >> You are 
 the infinite 
 >> [music] 
 >> God of the 
 ages. 
 Yet you chose to make my heart 
 >> [singing and music] 
 >> your dwelling place. 
 You healed my brokenness, [singing] 
 showed me your glory. 
 So I have songs of [singing and music] 
 thanks not even angels sing. 
 Who else is [music and singing] worthy? 
 Who else is worthy? 
 There is no 
 >> [music] 
 >> only 
 you, Jesus. 
 Who else is worthy? 
 Who else is worthy? 
 There is [music and singing] no one, 
 only Jesus. 
 >> [singing] 
 >> Who else is worthy? 
 Who else is worthy? 
 There 
 is no one, 
 >> [singing] 
 >> only 
 Jesus. 
 Who [music] else is worthy? 
 Who else is worthy? 
 There 
 is no 
 one, 
 only Jesus. 
 >> [music] 
 [singing] 
 >> Lamb of 
 God, 
 >> [music] 
 >> anointed one, who [singing] 
 was and is and 
 is to come, 
 seated on 
 the throne [music] above. 
 Holy, 
 >> [singing] 
 >> holy, 
 the righteous one who shed [music] his 
 blood. 
 You proved to us the Father's [singing] 
 love. 
 Jesus [music] Christ, be lifted up. 
 Holy, 
 >> [singing] 
 [music] 
 >> holy, 
 the Lamb of God, anointed one, who was 
 and is 
 and is 
 >> [music] 
 
 [singing] >> to come, 
 seated on the throne above. 
 Holy, 
 >> [singing] 
 >> holy, the righteous one who shed [music] 
 his blood. 
 You proved to us 
 the Father's love. 
 >> [music] 
 >> Jesus Christ, be lifted up. 
 Holy, holy, the Lamb of 
 God, 
 the Lamb of 
 God, anointed one, 
 who was 
 and is 
 and is 
 to come, 
 seated on the throne 
 above. 
 Holy, Holy, 
 >> [singing] 
 >> holy, 
 righteous one 
 who shed 
 His blood. 
 >> [music] 
 >> You 
 proved to us 
 the Father's 
 love. Jesus Christ, 
 >> [music] 
 >> we lift 
 You up. 
 Who else is worthy? [singing] 
 Who else is worthy? 
 There is no one. 
 Only 
 You, Jesus. 
 Who else is worthy? 
 Who else is worthy? 
 There is no one. 
 Only 
 >> [music] 
 >> You, Jesus. 
 There is 
 There is no 
 Only You, Jesus. 
 >> [music] 
 >> There is no 
 Only 
 You, Jesus. 
 >> Thank you guys so much for joining us 
 today. Hope you guys have a great week. 
 See you guys next